


When in Doubt

by Shihanne



Category: Digimon Adventure Zero Two | Digimon Adventure 02
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-24
Updated: 2020-07-24
Packaged: 2021-03-04 18:14:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,736
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25480744
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shihanne/pseuds/Shihanne
Summary: An ill-fated meeting gives Ken a lesson on how "gut feelings" might have some basis when it comes to other people.
Relationships: Ichijouji Ken/Inoue Miyako | Yolei Inoue
Comments: 4
Kudos: 16





	When in Doubt

For all intents and purposes, it had been a completely average day up until he’d gotten the text message from Miyako that evening. It was a rather sudden thing, since it usually wasn’t Miyako who directly sent him one unless it was a group conversation with others.

_Ken-kun,_

_Sorry to bother you, but on the Chosen Children line, someone named Sakuragi Chieko asked me about you. She said she goes to your school. Do you know her?_

_Miyako_

Ken looked at the email, thinking hard about the words on it. Someone asking about him on the Chosen Children connection line? That happened with a lot of frequency, but Miyako and Koushirou had generally not passed along contact info without good reason for the sake of privacy…but someone claiming to be from his school definitely raised an eyebrow.

He read over the words, one by one, and went through the name “Sakuragi Chieko” for a few seconds before the realization hit him.

Sakuragi Chieko…wasn’t that the student council president?

He started typing out his message back to Miyako quickly.

_I think she’s the student council president at my school. Did she ask anything particular about me?_

After sending it, he stared at the message, wondering what this could possibly be about. The student council president? On the Chosen Children communication line? Did this mean…?

The response came back quickly and in short order, at the speed he’d normally expect from Miyako.

_I’m not sure, it’s just that she was asking about you. What should I do?_

“Wormmon,” said Ken.

“What’s wrong, Ken-chan?”

“Miyako-san just sent me a message saying that apparently the student council president at my school has been trying to reach me over the Chosen Children communication line…I’m not sure what to do about this. If she’s using the line, that means…”

“You think she might be a Chosen Child?”

“Yeah. And if she’s trying to get in contact with me…”

Wormmon made a little “hmm” noise, and then said, “I think there’s no harm in trying to contact her back, right? If she’s a Chosen Child, you should probably talk to her, especially if she’s at your school.”

“Yeah.”

Opening up his phone again, Ken started typing back to Miyako.

_I’ll probably talk to her at school tomorrow. Please don’t worry about it and leave it to me._

Again, as usual, Miyako sent in a prompt reply.

_Got it. Thanks, Ken-kun._

Ken had only just closed his phone when he noticed another one from Miyako – _Also, please please please tell me how it goes!!!_

“Must be hard work maintaining the Chosen Children community…” said Ken. “I guess I shouldn’t mess this up, or it’ll get her in trouble…”

He went back to the original message that Miyako had sent him. “Sakuragi Chieko”…The more he thought about it, the more he was absolutely sure this meant that the student council president wanted to talk to him. He didn’t remember having any particular interaction with her; in fact it was probably surprising he’d even remembered her name. And he’d tried to avoid having any interaction with the student council ever since entering high school; how was he going to approach her…?

* * *

As it turned out, there was no need; Sakuragi Chieko showed up personally to his homeroom herself the next day.

“You’re Ichijouji Ken-kun, right?’

Ken looked up at Sakuragi, who was standing over his desk during lunch period. She was of rather average height, with hair cut neatly in bangs, and she was folding her hands in front of her. Her expression was light and soft, and she smiled gently at him.

“I apologize if this was sudden. Inoue Miyako-san referred me to you. I was hoping to speak with you, since you’re a fellow Chosen Child…”

“Ah, I see...You’re Sakuragi Chieko-san, right? So this means you’re a Chosen Child?”

“Yes. As of quite recently, in fact…” She looked around with a very gentle demeanor, and looked back at him. “I would like to talk more with you if that’s all right, but I think now would be a rather bad time…Is it okay if we meet for lunch this Saturday?”

“A-Ah?”

Taken aback by the invitation, Ken nodded. “I…I don’t think I have anything this weekend, so I think it should be fine.”

“That’s good. Thank you very much. Is it all right if I asked for your number?”

The two of them exchanged numbers.

“Thank you very much. I’m looking forward to seeing you this weekend.”

She turned around and slowly walked out of his classroom.

Ken watched her leave the room, and looked down at the scrap of paper where she’d left her number. _A Chosen Child in my school, huh…_

* * *

Ken returned to his apartment lost in thought, still absent-mindedly thinking about what had just happened.

“Welcome back, Ken-chan,” said his mother, working in the kitchen. “How was school today?”

“It went well,” said Ken. He walked towards his room, opened the door, and turned around. “Ah…”

“Is something wrong, Ken-chan?”

“One of the girls at school – the student council president – wants to see me this weekend.”

“Oh, my goodness!” said Ken’s mother, turning to look at him from where she was. “You mean you’re going on a date?!”

“No! Oh no, nothing like that! She just wants to talk about something…”

“Ah, is that so?” She turned back to the dishes, but Ken noticed that it seemed like she was holding back a giggle. “Well, hopefully she’s a nice girl…”

Ken laughed a little awkwardly and went into his room, closed the door, and threw himself onto his bed.

“Welcome back, Ken-chan,” said Wormmon, crawling up to the bed. “Is something wrong?”

“I’m fine. It’s just been a busy day…”

He pulled out his phone and the paper and started registering Sakuragi’s phone number in his contacts. “I met Sakuragi Chieko-san today. As we thought, she’s a Chosen Child.”

“So that’s why she wanted to talk to you, right?”

“Yeah.” Ken turned around to face Wormmon, still on the bed. “You’re coming too, right, Wormmon?”

“Of course!”

The phone let out a message tone, and Ken grabbed the phone and opened it. It was a message from Sakuragi specifying a restaurant in Shinbashi that she wanted to meet at on Saturday.

Ken typed in a _Sounds good, thank you very much_ and sent it without hesitation.

“Hey, Ken-chan,” said Wormmon, “you should probably tell Miyako-san, too.”

“Ah, that’s right…”

Ken opened the phone, looked up Miyako’s name, and sent another message.

_I met Sakuragi Chieko-san today. She said she wanted to meet up for lunch at a restaurant on Saturday. As we thought, she’s a Chosen Child, and she said she became one recently, so I accepted her offer. Wormmon will be coming with me._

It was a pain to type in so much detail, but his mother having teased him about Sakuragi being his potential date gave him an acute desire to clarify to Miyako that the fact he was going with a girl he’d just met for lunch on the weekend did _not_ mean that – of course, not that Miyako didn’t also understand that the need to help a newer Chosen Child was a fairly urgent thing, but she was the type to jump to conclusions, so just in case…

Miyako, of course, responded quite quickly.

_Whoa!! This Saturday?! Where are you meeting her?_

Ken sent back the name and location.

_Woooooooow, that’s a really expensive restaurant…Good luck!_

Ken shut his phone and looked at the top of his bed. He’d never usually gone out for lunch directly with complete strangers; most of his actual outings had involved coordination with Daisuke and the others.

“It’ll be fine, Ken-chan,” said Wormmon. “I wonder what her partner is like…”

* * *

Ken arrived with exact punctuality at the restaurant, finding her having arrived at the exact same time. She was holding a small koala-like Digimon in her arms – her partner, presumably.

“Ah, Ichijouji-kun…thank you for meeting me,” said Sakuragi. “By the way, this is my treat, as my thanks for coming out of your way to speak with me.”

“A-Ah…!”

Ken wanted to protest, but a quick look at the prices on the menu revealed that, as Miyako had warned, it was a very high-end, expensive restaurant – one _very_ out of his budget. Turning down Sakuragi’s offer meant there would be no way he’d be able to afford it, but he couldn’t haggle for something cheaper without being horribly rude…

The two of them went in and were seated at a table, with Wormmon and Sakuragi’s Digimon sitting next to their respective partners. Ken looked around the ambience of the restaurant; he didn’t come to this kind of place very often, and there was something a little suffocating about it.

“Ah, this is my Digimon partner, Phascomon,” said Sakuragi. “I assume that’s your partner as well?”

“Yes. This is Wormmon.”

“Nice to meet you,” said Wormmon, politely.

“Nice meeting ya,” said Phascomon, looking a little sleepy.

“Now that we’ve introduced ourselves…” Sakuragi got up. “Please excuse me for a second.”

She walked out and down the hallway and into the bathroom.

“Ken-chan,” whispered Wormmon.

Ken looked back at him. “…Ah?” Realizing that Wormmon wanted to talk quietly, he leaned in.

“Her partner…really scares me…”

Ken took an aside glance at Phascomon, who seemed to not be paying attention to their conversation. “What’s scary about her?”

“I don’t know…But she scares me…”

Sakuragi returned from the bathroom and sat down, with the same grace she used to walk around with. “Thank you for waiting. As I said, I’m grateful for you taking the time to talk to me…I’d heard a lot about you, even beyond just your work as a Chosen Child. You’re clearly a very capable and talented person, so I’m quite honored to be able to speak to you like this.”

“T…Thank you,” said Ken. He wasn’t very sure what to say; these kinds of compliments always made him feel incredibly awkward, especially when they came from strangers.

Sakuragi continued. “It’s been quite a learning process after I met Phascomon, but I’ve been learning a lot about having a partner. But it’s also been difficult going through all of this for me at this specific time…” She started stroking Phascomon’s head, although Phascomon seemed to be altogether uninterested. “As you know, I’ve recently become student council president, and there’s quite a lot of work that always needs to be done. I’ve been coming to terms with my own limitations…”

She turned to face Ken directly.

“Ichijouji-kun, if I may ask, why haven’t you joined the student council?”

“H-Huh? Me?” Ken looked down awkwardly. “Well, to be honest, it didn’t really seem like something for me…”

“Really?” Sakuragi folded her hands together. “From what I’ve heard of you, you seem quite diligent and capable. Someone who’s managed to do so many wonderful things as a Chosen Child, like you, seems more than appropriate for the job, especially as someone with a Digimon partner in our very school – ”

“Aaaaaack! Ken-chan!”

Ken looked over to see that, while Sakuragi had been talking, Phascomon had crawled over to the other side and was starting to pull on Wormmon’s legs. The look on her face was one of morbid fascination – like she wanted to try pulling on them to see if they’d pop out.

“Wormmon!” Ken immediately grabbed him and started pulling him away from Phascomon.

“Oh, Phascomon!” Sakuragi bolted to the other side of the table and grabbed Phascomon, bringing her back. “Ah…I’m so sorry…I think she was getting a little bored and hungry…” She moved back to her seat and bowed her head a little. “I’m sorry. As you can see, I still have a long way to go as a Chosen Child…”

“Ah…Don’t worry about it…” Ken looked back at Wormmon, stroking the legs that Phascomon had pulled on. “Are you okay, Wormmon?”

“Y-Yeah…Thanks, Ken-chan…”

Wormmon retreated into a bit of a ball position on the chair, and Ken could still see his thoughts vividly in his eyes – _she really scares me._

* * *

After lunch, Sakuragi took Ken to the nearby shopping center. Ken found that he was still hungry – that restaurant _really_ had not served a lot of food. But he felt bad bringing the subject up, since it would imply that her taste in restaurant had been poor. _Well, I’ll just wait until dinner…_

Sakuragi continued to talk about how she’d heard about Ken’s exploits as a Chosen Child – according to her, anyone keeping on top of things _must_ have heard of it – and even about his former reputation as a genius. Ken absolutely _hated_ people bringing that up – not only for the association with things he’d rather not remember, but also because it always led to spotlight that he felt he genuinely didn’t deserve.

But as much as this entire situation was making him feel awkward, he simply didn’t have it in him to say anything – after all, she was complimenting him, so it wasn’t right to deny it…

They stopped at a local bookstore.

“Please feel free to buy anything you like, and I’ll cover it,” said Sakuragi.

“Oh, no, lunch was already more than enough – ”

“Please, I insist, it’s my treat.”

Ken walked into the bookstore, thinking that he now definitely did _not_ want to buy anything. He looked at Wormmon nervously, wanting to vocalize his concerns, but not being able to when Sakuragi was in earshot. She was being nothing but kind and polite to him, and while Ken was worried about Wormmon’s welfare in front of Phascomon, Sakuragi couldn’t be blamed for still trying to figure out her own dynamic with her partner, right? After all, he didn’t have the right to judge people’s relationships with their partners…

_Why am I feeling uncomfortable about this? I should be grateful…_

As Wormmon started crawling towards a book to take a closer look at it, they were interrupted by someone their age walking by.

“A-Ah…Ah, President…”

The person who had just gotten there suddenly seemed to recoil in fear upon seeing Sakuragi. Sakuragi looked them up and down, registering who they were – and suddenly, her voice got very, very cold.

“Ueda-kun. Didn’t you promise you were going to be working on the reports this weekend?”

The boy, Ueda – whom Ken assumed was probably another member of the student council – started taking a few steps back and shrinking. Even putting aside the sudden, violent shift in tone of voice that Sakuragi had just taken, he’d seen this kind of reaction before – he knew _exactly_ what this meant.

“Y-Yes, President…I’m sorry, I just needed to take a break…”

Sakuragi started walking towards him as he continued to shrink back. “We have a lot of things to be working on right now, and your penchant for slacking off has gotten us more than three weeks behind. I asked you to take some proper responsibility, but as it seems, you keep insisting on acting like an imbecile every weekend, and that’s why we keep having these problems.”

Now starting to shake a bit, Ueda nodded. “R-Right…I’m sorry, President…”

He turned around and ran off.

Sakuragi turned back to Ken. Her voice had gone back into the light and soft register she’d been using prior. “I’m sorry. Ichijouji-kun…As you can see, it’s tough running the student council…This is why I feel like it’s a shame we don’t have more capable people like you.”

Ken was still in deep shock, looking at what he’d just witnessed. He looked at Wormmon, who was also looking at the scene nervously. What he _really_ wanted to do was make an excuse and end the meetup right then and there, but after seeing the way Ueda had been shivering…

“…Sakuragi-senpai…Is this how you normally treat your juniors in the student council?”

“Please don’t worry about that, Ichijouji-kun! He’d had a sloppy record for three weeks straight, and I have to get him to take responsibility at some point. If it hadn’t been for that, I could be much easier on him…”

“Sakuragi-senpai, I personally believe that it’s possible to learn a lot about someone by how they treat those who are dependent on them.” He picked up Wormmon into his arms. “I am afraid to say that if I were to try for the student council, I would probably be wondering when would be the day I’d end up as the recipient. I understand that you’re worried about the efficiency of the student council, but I think it would be more effective for you to consider what impact that might have on your juniors.”

He walked past her, turned around, bowed a little, and said, “If you’ll pardon me for my rudeness, I’ll have to excuse myself.”

And he left with Wormmon in tow, leaving behind a startled Sakuragi and Phascomon.

* * *

On his way home, Ken remembered that he’d left his jacket at the restaurant, and went to go pick it up – only to see none other than Miyako standing in front of it, staring at the menu with Hawkmon.

“I must say, those look like some exquisitely fine dishes,” said Hawkmon.

“They do,” said Miyako, “but man, they’re _way_ out of my budget…”

“Miyako-san! Hawkmon!” said Wormmon.

“What are you doing here in Shinbashi?” asked Ken.

The two of them turned around, and Miyako suddenly gasped and waved her arms desperately. “Ah! Ken-kun! Um, this probably looks really weird! I, um, I heard you were coming to this restaurant, and we got really curious about it! But of course I didn’t want to intrude on your meeting, since that’d be really weird, so I thought I’d come after lunchtime to check it out myself, but I didn’t expect you to come back here, and…!”

“Oh no, it’s fine, I was just surprised…” said Ken, laughing a little, albeit still a little awkwardly.

Miyako, noticing the tone in his laugh, tilted her head a bit. “Did…it not go well?”

As the two of them went inside to fetch Ken’s jacket, he explained all that had happened – that Sakuragi had tried to pay for everything, that Phascomon had hurt Wormmon, that Sakuragi had tried to convince him to try for the student council, that they’d gone to the bookstore, that she’d tried to pay for him again, and what he’d seen with Ueda and Sakuragi. He went into an abnormal amount of detail with it – he needed to get it off his chest, perhaps because of how hesitant he’d been to voice anything in Sakuragi’s earshot.

He looked nervously at Miyako, whose frown was creating a large crease across her lip, and he thought, _oh no, I’ve really made things hard for Miyako-san, she’s going to have a hard time dealing with this on the Chosen Children line…_

But Miyako let out a _hmph_ and crossed her arms angrily, and said, “Hell of some kind of nerve she has. Trying to bribe you into the student council like that so you can be her slave dog!”

Ken breathed out a bit of a sigh of relief that Miyako was on his side – for some reason, he’d been rather stressed about the idea of what she’d think of the entire ordeal.

“Seriously, the nerve. And she starts going in about your talents and trying to pay for things like she can bribe her way into your respect or something, too. Doesn’t even treat you like a human being instead of thinking about your actual feelings. Has a fake face while she steps on other people. You know how much I _hate_ people like that?!” She was now so agitated she was waving a fist around, before she stopped herself and looked at Ken. “Ah, sorry…I guess I got ahead of myself, I guess I’m not the one who should be talking about it…”

“No, it’s fine. Thanks, Miyako-san.” In actuality, what Miyako had said made him feel much better – it solidified his feelings that, in the end, he hadn’t been wrong to feel odd about Sakuragi’s “generosity”. If anything, he was more surprised at how Miyako seemed to be unusually angry on his behalf.

After Ken inquired with the staff about his jacket, he turned to look at Wormmon and Hawkmon, who were deep in conversation.

“…so I heavily recommend menthol rub, it gets rid of the soreness right away, I’ve used it for myself and it’s an absolute charm.”

“Really? You sure know a lot, Hawkmon!”

“I’ll vouch for it with confidence! My own personal experience has been stellar!”

Miyako turned to Ken. “But are you going to be fine with the Chosen Children line? Since she contacted you through it.”

“Nah, I’ll be fine. We’ve dealt with worse cases before,” said Miyako. “More importantly, are _you_ going to be okay at school? Since she’s the student council president and all.”

“There’ll probably be some difficulties and all…But someone like her should not be president, so maybe I’ll have to keep an eye on things from now on, anyway.”

Miyako sighed. “You really are too kind, Ken-kun…”

* * *

After receiving Ken's jacket back from the staff, they went outside – and, as if right on cue, Miyako’s stomach started rumbling.

“Ah…hahahahaha…” Miyako covered her stomach awkwardly. “I guess looking at a menu and being in a restaurant kind of made me hungry…”

Ken laughed softly, and, after thinking for a second, said, “Hey, Miyako-san…since we’re both out here, do you want to go get something to eat?”

“A-Ah?! Didn’t you eat not too long ago?”

“The truth is…that place didn’t serve a lot, so I’m pretty hungry myself.”

“Ah, so of course, it was one of _those_ places…” Miyako sighed. “Maybe I’m just saying this because I’m used to the convenience store, but there’s no point if you don’t even have any value…Well, why not, then – let’s go someplace more _our_ style!” She suddenly covered her mouth. “Oh, that came out really weird, didn’t it…”

Ken laughed a little. “No, not at all, I think that’s exactly what I was thinking.”

“R-Really?!”

And the two of them, with their partners, left the overly expensive restaurant and went to go look for a restaurant in Shinbashi that was, indeed, more of their style.

**Author's Note:**

> I got the idea for this fic after reading a long thread of testimonies about how people spotted toxic friends or abusive partners early when their normally gentle and soft-spoken pets would suddenly act threatened or hostile around someone "nice" (who would of course show their true colors later). Since Digimon are supposed to be reflections of the inner self (and are a lot more capable of vocalizing their feelings), I thought about how a similar concept might manifest in Adventure's universe. My apologies to Sakuragi Chieko, a character made for the sole purpose of me demonstrating this thought experiment, but it's not like I was going to do this with a canon character, after all. Ultimately this oneshot ended up going in a bit of a different direction, but I did like the idea that came out of it.
> 
> As was mentioned once in the story, this follows the assumption that Ken is in high school; I imagined specifically first-year for Ken and second-year for Miyako, so this would take place in around 2007. They still seem to be on flip phone status, though!


End file.
